decaffeninated on text-shadowing
Luckily I come out as not the bad-guy in the text shadow debate, but I can see Chris' point. Text shadowing should only be used by professionals"Traditionally (y’know… in that media we had before the web), drop shadows have been used as an accent, a subtle effect to give headline text a little punch, which is precisely what Dan and Les have done in their designs. In other situations, such as the icon labels on the OS X desktop, drop shadows have been used to increase the readability of text on an unpredictable background, or to bump up the contrast between body text and background color (as is the case on Bryan’s site). Only since the release of Safari 1.1 have drop shadows actually been used to stifle readability… which is nothing but a damn shame. Such are the perils of putting powerful tools in the hands of excitable kids." - [decaffeninated]
Yeah it's unfortunate that people just willy-nilly add text-shadowing to text that doesn't need it. That doesn't mean that to ability shouldn't be universally added to browsers, like other people have suggested. People are going to misuse tools, that's human nature. It's the same force that convinces secretaries that since they have a copy of Microsoft Publisher, and a CD library of 50,000 clipart images, that makes them qualified to produce the companies annual report.
Drop shadow, when used right adds to readably. It has been an integral part of television production for years and therefore is should be added to the browser.
BTW, i'd like to thank Chris for the compliments, and I'm glad that you liked raelityBytes. Chris has a cool design that I might have to "borrow" from in the future. :)
Surprise: a new look for UserLand
UserLand has switched to a new design I created a couple months ago. I only found out about it when live after Dave Winer forwarded me a nice email he got that said:"Man, I love that design. Perfect balance. Looking at the site is like getting a back rub from God."
Now I guess i need to install the new Radio UserLand, and Manila themes.